Sick of Sarah Raven.. she has no idea..literally

[BlueAce73]

I’ve worked so hard in horticulture & agriculture.. her advice is crap

@Sapphirejane Trial and error is fine.
Although I'm experienced, I'm also haphazard and you can never rely on the weather.
Shoving things in the garden and seeing how they do is a perfectly acceptable way to garden imho.
I listen to BBC GQT as I garden and have learned so much from that over the years - the experts on that often have different opinions to each other.

I've had mixed results from Sarah Raven and have stopped buying from there. By the time my tiny potted salvias arrived, Sainsburys were selling fully established salvias for a quarter of the price. The SR ones were killed off by slugs and quickly replaced by the ones from Sainsburys which were big enough to survive the odd nibble. The ferns were also tiny compared to what was in shops (though they are doing brilliantly now). Some of the colours on the website are a bit off. I used to Google the plants before buying to get a realistic idea of the colour. Her photos are often brighter than others.

I quite enjoy her podcast but found her incredibly rude when she was a guest on the Let's Grow Girls podcast. She went off on a monologue and the host Nicole said "ooooh" in an excited way about some flower or plant SR mentioned. She snapped "don't do that" then continued her monologue. Nicole was noticeably silent for ages with the other host Sarah only occasionally commenting. If it had been my podcast I would have given up and found a new guest or topic for the episode.

OP what particular piece of advice is crap?

I mentally separate her podcasts/videos/books from her retail. I find her immensely helpful and practical and full of ideas. With her science background she understands and explains the science behind her techniques. I haven’t found any crap advice yet. I love the podcasts with Arthur Parkinson. Her latest book is brilliant.

BUT, I have had so many iffy experiences purchasing from her company that whilst I value her recommendations for particular varieties, I prefer to source them elsewhere if I can. Fibrex for pelargoniums, Peter Nyssen for bulbs and Chiltern for seeds. All cheaper and more reliable.

Beware also that the luscious photographs on her website and in the catalogues have such high colour saturation they are at times misleading so I always do a google image search to check the colour.

A friend of mine raves about SR. She goes on her courses and leaves the catalogue well marked up lying about when I see her ( I’m a keen gardener). Her ‘garden’ is a courtyard about 20 foot by Ten foot, mostly paved…..

A few years back when I first started taking a tentative interest in gardening, this issue about “bee-friendly” plants at garden centres actually containing traces of bee-killing pesticides was just hitting the news:

www.chemistryworld.com/news/garden-centre-plants-may-pose-pesticide-threat-to-bees/3007487.article

www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/garden-centres-selling-bee-friendly-plants-pesticides-harmful-neonicotinoids-a7734516.html?amp

So I started buying from SR (and also some local small trusted suppliers) largely because, as I understand it, they do not use that type of toxic pesticide at all. I sometimes am tempted by cheaper and bigger and luscious-looking plants from supermarkets or garden centres but I don’t trust they are safe, basically. The last thing I want is to bring home plants laced with stuff that hurts bees and puts them at risk in my garden.

I totally get that the problems with SR can be super frustrating. They’re far from perfect and really pricey. But this is one reason why I stick with them. (Also because I’m a sucker for the catalogue, tbf.)

plus the Sarah and Arthur podcast advice seems intelligent and has tended to work well for me, leaving aside the adverty bits.

@LemonJuiceFromConcentrate As someone who plants for pollinators, I hadn’t thought about that. I won’t buy from SR, but I will check in future. One thing I learned recently is that some damaging pesticides have been banned by the EU for years, but due to Brexit, they are being reintroduced in the UK 🤬

I think it can be really difficult to get a reliable answer about how plants have been treated all along complex supply chains in the context of supermarkets and big chain garden centres, @AnnieSnap — it’s a significant worry if you care about the issue. Which hopefully most of us do, although I know there are also people who just buy plants as sort of decorative accessories and don’t give a toss about biodiversity.

Not to derail the thread but leaving aside Sarah Raven for a moment (as the op seems to have disappeared anyway!) I try and use smaller places like specialist plant nurseries and suppliers with an emphasis on environmental responsibility and all that jazz.

I’m no saint when it comes to the environment by any means but I get so irate at the notion of well-meaning shoppers being misled by “bee friendly” labels on contaminated plants.

Interesting discussion! I've never bought from Sarah raven as it seems too expensive but I like listening to the podcast. I'd love to know what advice of hers didn't work.

Eek her trust pilot reviews are awful! I like Chiltern seeds and farmer gracy too. Lovely packaging and a good germination. I had some bulbs from farmer gracy that haven't grown at all and they're going to send me some more this autumn. So, good customer service too. If you want standard types of seeds, I recommend bargain seeds, you get loads for your money.

Thanks for the heads-up on good places to buy seeds. Having just this year got a greenhouse (happy dance) and successfully grown some plants from seed. I’ve decided to grow my own, other than the most awkward that apparently require stratifying.

I’m a bit shocked. Crocus have the edge but I have ordered bulbs including dahlias, seeds and plants from Sarah Raven.. Everything has thrived. I literally stuck lettuce, mustard, pea, courgette, tomato seeds very sparingly into a raised bed and pots so I didn’t have to thin. Everything single seed, dahlia, allium and tulip bulb came up. I have no greenhouse and I’m pretty inexperienced although progressing.

But when was this?

I used to really rate Sarah Raven. IMO the change has coincided with the pandemic, and I can't help wondering whether she lost her experienced staff at that point.

Very recently. Consistently good all this year. Not had any duds except for her Ladybird rose nasturtium seeds that have bloomed yellow and not the colour pictured.

I've always raved about SR in the past, as the prices were only a bit more than elsewhere, I found them very good quality and there were exceptionally good varieties, great colours & combinations plus when things died they we replaced really quickly no problem.

This year, I think some prices have increased a lot, and some plug plants arrived damaged, having obviously been packed carelessly. The replacements that eventually arrived were horribly leggy. But the other things I ordered were good - I love the look of my Shoreditch pot collection- very unusual and special plants. So I'll keep on using her but will use other places more than I used to.

I've had bad luck with a number of SR plug plants too, though I'll admit I'm a very haphazard gardener.

I love Chiltern and Higgeldy for seeds, and also Pretty Wild Seeds has great customer service.

They changed warehouse in 2020 but I won’t buy bulbs from her again as I had quite a few mouldy bulbs last year and no reply to my complaint email. I’d taken photographs of them.

I believe Sarah Raven is Emma Bridgewater's cousin. Desmond McCarthy from Wiveton Hall in Norfolk is also EB's cousin (though I don't know if Sarah and Desmond are cousins too).

Sarah used to run courses at Emma Bridgewater's home in Bampton, Oxfordshire before Emma split with Matthew Rice (who went on to date Elon Musk's ex Talulah Riley).

Emma is the sister of the late Nell Gifford of Gifford's circus and the writer Clover Stroud. Which I think would also make them cousin's of Sarah Raven (although Emma has a different dad to Nell and Clover).

Emma did a special range of pottery for Wiveton Hall and her stuff is used in the cafe. Her pottery was also used at the cafe at Gifford's but not sure if that will continue after the falling out which Clover wrote about in the Sunday Times.

Lil Rice (daughter of Matthew Rice and Emma Bridgewater and niece of Sarah Raven) has left Gifford's and set up her own circus called Fool's Delight!

Sorry to go off topic a bit but thought it may be of interest to some....

Huh, yes it is interesting.

And ever so slightly irritating — various posh cousins with a vaguely intertwined network of businesses and relationships, collectively influencing the taste of masses of people. In 75 years someone will write an exposing group biography of them all.

(that’s if humans/books/an inhabited earth still exist in 75 years)

@LemonJuiceFromConcentrate good point - and whilst I don't doubt they've all worked very hard they have all had the advantages of being well connected, posh and confident (and in some cases inherited wealth). In Clover's books she writes about going off the rails and being wild but it was safe in the knowledge that there was a family owned house in Oxford that she could go back to when she needed. I think it's much easier to be wild, artistic and creative when you have a safety net. From what I've read of Emma though I do believe she built her business up from very little (I think it was Clover's father that owned the house in Oxford etc rather than Emma's) although someone on here may know better.

This thread is very interesting on a number of levels. Wondering why the OP isn’t back - It feels almost as though someone with an axe to grind came here to start a thread to damage the business, OP please do come back and be less cryptic than your opening comment!

You’ve bothered to come on here and post that, but haven’t bothered to give one reason why?!

Brilliant.

While the OP may have disappeared, enough of us have related our own poor experiences with Sarah Raven's products and services to back that up. And the Trustpilot reviews tell the same story. People should know and also know which companies are better alternatives.

I have young relatives who have worked in SR's packing warehouse to earn money during gap years. It sounded minimum wage with a not too pleasant culture and many of the workers back then were from Europe - so Brexit must have had an impact on the business.

I have to say, I think it is pretty shabby of OP to hurl insults at somebody and fail to even give an example. I too have worked extremely hard in horticulture for the last 22 years and would be profoundly upset if somebody told the the world I had no idea and my advice was crap. Such a peculiar and aggressive post.

I "looked after" Emma Bridgewater at a charity event and she was lovely. Really quite shy and very pleasant.